Many different types of container to be filled with products in the form of liquid or powder are currently available. Increasingly, containers of a collapsible type are being used. By a container of a collapsible type is meant a container having a compartment which is defined by flexible walls and whose volume is dependent on the relative position of the walls and, thus, dependent on the filling ratio of the container.
This type of containers may have a number of different handle types.
EP 1 667 917 discloses a container of a collapsible type, which has a handle portion intended to be filled with gas and defined between two opposite side walls. The handle portion communicates via a duct with an opening formed in one of the side walls. Compared with the handle portion, the duct has a significantly smaller cross-sectional area.
EP 1 667 917 further discloses a device for gas filling of the handle portion. A gas supply nozzle is applicable to the opening in the container and by opening a valve gas is allowed to flow through the opening and the duct into the handle portion for expansion thereof. In an immediately following operation, a sealing means arranged radially outside the gas supply nozzle is applied to the duct to provide sealing of the duct so as to enclose the gas supplied to the handle portion. The device may be an integrated part of a filling machine.
Increasingly high demands are placed on the speed at which a filling machine is capable of filling and sealing containers. It has been found that the filling of gas into the handle portion of containers of a collapsible type may be a bottleneck with an adverse effect on the filling capacity of a filling machine. There is, thus, a need for an improved method for gas filling a handle portion of a container of a collapsible type.